Ethics panels rarely busy but are still necessary, according to officials

MOUNT OLIVE TWP. While the township prepares to create a panel
to hear allegations of ethical misconduct by officials, other
municipalities said their panels were vital, though rarely
used.

In November, the voters overwhelmingly demanded that the
township create the ethics panel rather than forward complaints of
ethical misdeeds for hearing before the N.J. Local Finance
Board.

Council President William Sohl said he will proceed with
creation of the panel after he receives clarification requested
from the state. Among other issues, Sohl said he has asked if the
township's ethics ordinance adopted 10 years ago is still
valid.

There are no local ethics panels in Morris County but a total of
36 municipalities and five counties around the state have such
panels, according to the N.J. Department of Community
Affairs.

Old Bridge Panel

James Cooney has been the attorney representing the Old Bridge
ethics panel since 1995. He said the panel has one hope.

"Our goal is to never meet," Cooney said of the panel formed in
the early 1990s.

The panel heard one complaint last year on an allegation that a
commissioner to

the local municipal utility authority had improperly been given
a paid position

with the authority. The official was found guilty by the panel
and has appealed

to an administrative law judge, Cooney said.

Cooney said state law precludes appointed officials from
accepting paid posts with the same agency for at least a year after
they are no longer on the agency. Old Bridge extended the waiting
period to two years.

Cooney said the panel found not only the official appointed to
the job to be guilty but also the commissioners who voted to give
him the post.

The official, Joseph Hoff, who also was a councilman at the
time, was fined $100 by the panel and he lost his job with the
authority, Cooney said. He said the penalty could have been as high
as $250.

Cooney said the accuser was a Republican against the Democrat
Hoff but that politics didn't bear on the case, as far as the panel
was concerned.

"In the end, the board could care less what politics are
involved," Cooney said. "It was such a clear matter but there is
always a danger that ethics complaints can be used as political
fodder."

Since 1995, Old Bridge has heard about five complaints and only
one went to the

hearing stage. Others were referred to Trenton because the
complaints were made

before the panel was approved by the state. In those cases,
Cooney said the complainants did not pursue the matters.

Cooney said the panel also was asked to give an opinion on
whether an engineering firm once hired by the Planning Board could
ethically also represent clients before the board.

The Old Bridge panel has an annual budget of about $5,000 to pay
for legal costs. The six members include two clergymen.

Fair Lawn Panel

In Fair Lawn, Robert Gordon has been chairman of the local
ethics panel for three years. The six-member group, appointed by
the Borough Council, meets at least once a year to reorganize and
another time to review statements that all officials must submit
outlining their finances.

He said the panel once determined that the library board had
failed to file. But the failure was an innocent oversight and when
informed, board members reported their finances, Gordon
said.

Since he took over, the Fair Lawn panel has heard one complaint
of ethical misconduct. The complaint was filed by a self-proclaimed
watchdog prior to an election who claimed developers may have
received preferential treatment from Democratic council
members.

The board held several closed sessions where they reviewed
statements submitted

by the council members. Gordon said the panel also reviewed the
council members' financial statements to discern any relationships
with the developers.

They found none.

"The council members were cleared of all charges," Gordon
said.

The allegations didn't affect the Democratic candidates who were
elected in an "overwhelming victory." But Gordon said the length
and timing of the panel's hearing ruined several summer vacations.
But he said the hearings did leave a bad taste with the accused
officials.

"If anyone wonders why it is so hard to get people to run for
municipal office, here's one example of it," said Gordon, a former
councilman and mayor.

He said he resented the allegations were lodged against
officials who had served for many years with unblemished records.
However, Gordon said the panel is important because "people make
mistakes in judgment."

"It requires a balancing act," he said. "You want to protect all
involved and do a proper investigation."

He also said a state panel might not be aware of local issues,
such as a pending election.

"The town can handle it more expeditiously and better understand
what's going on than Trenton can," Gordon said. "I knew there was
an election coming up and I wanted it resolved before the
election."

No Business

In Piscataway, panel chairwoman Margaret Kruse said the
six-member agency was formed 30 years ago. It includes four clergy
members and two lay people who meet once a year to choose a
chairwoman and that's about it.

"We haven't had any business since 1970," Kruse said.

She said no complaints have been forwarded to the board in three
decades but that allegations of official misconduct have been
reviewed by the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.

Though the Piscataway panel has had no work, Kruse said it is
nonetheless valuable if only to ensure people that there is an
agency to hear concerns about ethical conduct by public
officials.

"It's not a burden to anybody and the pastors seem to like
meeting," said Kruse, a former Borough Councilwoman and active
member of the N.J. League of Women Voters.

Kruse said officials had debated over forming a local panel or
referring complaints to the state. They decided they would rather
deal with their own issues.

"We'd rather take care of ourselves than have strangers come
in," Kruse said.

Roseland Borough had an ethics panel but disbanded it in 1997
because of inactivity and a difficulty to find residents willing to
serve, said a borough spokesman.

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